In a recent study, CBRE reports that e-commerce has driven a more than doubling of the average footprint of warehouses built in the U.S. since the early 2000s.

CBRE analyzed the average size of warehouses built in the U.S. during the last development upswing from 2002 to 2007 and compared those figures to the current building period of 2012-2017. The analysis found that the average size increased by 143 percent in that span to 184,693 sq. ft. and the average warehouse clear height rose by 3.7 feet, to 32.3 feet in total.

Chicago warehouse size increased roughly 134 percent in that time frame, with the average new building now at 283,366 square feet, up from 121,133 square feet.

“The e-commerce industry has created demand for massive warehouses with high ceilings to store extensive, fast-moving inventories,” said Matt Mulvihill, executive vice president with CBRE in Chicago. “We have seen this drive new construction activity in the Chicago region and we expect it to continue for the foreseeable future as new product is delivering an advantage to large-scale distributors.”